In the news lately in the age newspaper Melbourne University have decided to axed than 150 staff via voluntary redundancy in response to the financial crisis. Here’s the article.

Just as I thought so, over the past couple of months, particularly the very half of the year, when I was working on the following entries:

The Three bubbles which we have to be concerned with and Update: The three bubbles.

If you want to refresh your memory, I wasn’t quite surprised of what’s going to happened with the higher education market of mentioning the real possibility of a crash in the education sector.

In the event of both international and overseas students deferring their studies due to rising unemployment and financial hardship as the result of the G.F.C.

Since late 2008 while I was finishing off Communication Design at Swinburne university I have this in my mind of the G.F.C and predicted that such an event would likely to occur earlier then later.

Now people starting to realised that the stimulus packages are nothing like Keynesian dud cough lollies, I knew these stimulus packages delay recessions and they don’t prevent them as most cough lollies only masked the symptoms and never cures the cause.

The story of Melbourne University are the first signs of my predictions and Even though I’ve commented before on the Save VCA page on facebook that “I wont be surprised that the education market is going to crash” while government intervention and the management of the major universities themselves heading to the path of a downfall due to the funding of the HECS scheme have so far become so uncompetitive, unprofitable and reduced the quality of education.

I was going about this ever since before the screening of ‘the holy cash cows of Australia’s education system’ a 4 corners program being screen on 8:30 pm Monday July 27, 2009. Which goes on about how Indian students are being rip off and exploited by dodgy education institution.

The consequences of the HECS scheme, stimulus handouts, home owners grants and excess borrowing will lend us a huge economic mess.  What I’d be emphasising that we will be expected to seeing the education sector experiencing after the layoffs, decline in student enrollments and scaling down university courses will lend to pressure on the federal government to give the universities a bailout.

In my opinion that’s not going to happen here, Kevin Rudd spend our budget down into the red already, the government’s broke here, the supply of credit for countries will be tighten then ever before. Certainly for next year, Wayne Swan and Paul Henry is going to have sleepless nights of trying not to put us in the red, yet again.

The priority is now surpluses, savings and paying off debt. We heading for the deepest recession of all time, bugger the IMF forecasts for the rest of the world. As the world is heading for the worst depression of all time.

I’d be seeing a lot of people heading towards the bankruptcy courts, homes reprocessed, other assets taken away from them. A lot of cafes, retail, restaurants and businesses out of business. To me this recession is going to last at least ten years from the start.

Unless we have a change in policies not that the Federal Government under no circumstances will not intervene in the ecomony, when they can just let the Free Market to work itself out and or else we will be in more longer and bigger mess, if they are going to repeat the mistakes they made during late 2008 and early 2009.

Will there still be any government grantees for our bank deposits?

No, I dont think they can affort to.

If you read the following blog entires; The housing bubble, what’s instore for the Australian economy, Following up on Friday’s July 31st, 2009. Staring: Marc Faber, Update: The three bubbles, The Three bubbles which we have to be concerned with! and Not happy Mum!

This time as I was being warning before how badly it will be in the next couple of years since early half of the year, when I started blogging with blogspot.

Anway my current predictions refined:

Currently both stock market and sharemarket have been on a good run lately, to me the stockmarket is more likely to be in a bear market rally and home prices is been artificiality inflated by government grants. But they are not the lending indicator of economic activity here. Productions, savings, employment data and export data are the real indicators.

Consumer spending level is based on confidences, given that the federal Government’s stimulates packages  encourage consumer spending and they thinks it got us out of recession is just plan spin for me. It only delays recession, we haven’t fully recovered yet, look at the household debt we currently have here and the debt business still have, even the unprofitable ones also as unemployment is still looming.

That confidence is going the downward trend as more bad news is going appear in the news, when real signs of a crash will be appearing in the US and so as the value of its dollar. First the commercial real estate will fall down, so as more banks will filled for bankruptcy and more unemployment.

I won’t be surprised so called green shots of recovery turn out to be weeds. Growth figures will not rosy as before. Panic in the stock market around the world will be no surprised and confidence will be felt quite chilling.

Believe it or not the rest of the world will realised the US is not the engine of the global ecomony after all of supporting the US government borrowings and consumer’s debt.  Its the whole world that is going to benefit from the hardest downturn, because they live under their means and they are going to be enjoying the fruits of their labour.

Prices of commodities, assets,bonds other financial instruments will fall.

How would Australia will cope with it?

It will be quite bad! interest rates, lack of exports, lack of foreign investments, the bursting of the housing bubble, personal and business loans defaults and rising unemployment is going set off an explosion that sets Australia into a double dip recession if not half way near a depression.

Many industry such as education, retail, manufacturing, cafe & restaurant and banking is going to be the hardest hit. Why education is going to be hit hand the most?

I tell you why, what happens to the part time jobs that students that are currently working to support themselves? They will be gone, those jobs in cafe & restaurant, retail and etc. Will be gone, and these will have to choice to defer their studies.

Will there be any students going to uni after they finished high school? There will be barley any students enrolling into uni anyway because there won’t be any part time jobs available once the recession begins. This also applies to foreign students also and they going to have some difficulty finding part time work.

Will Kevin Rudd going to bail out the uni, business and homeowners. I hope he’d take the responsible approach of allowing the free market to function. That’s what our ecomony needs. Our government is broke, our creditors will have sleepless nights if we to borrow more money to get out that recession, it is such a pipe dream.

We have to let the recession to take its course, recessions happends because of government interferences and central banks around the world with thier poor monetary policys.

I am just as guilty of moaning about the expense of tertiary education in Australia as the next student. But, it must be said that Australians are very lucky compared to American students. We have government funded positions under the HECS system, we are almost guaranteed loans for post-graduate education, and quite a lot of students are eligible for government assistance like Youth Allowance or Austudy.

In fact, many Australians have decided to go, or go back to university or TAFE as the labour market weakens. Enrollments are up, especially in post-graduate courses.

In the US, however, it is a very different story. Students generally pay for more for university education, especially if they want to attend a prestigious institution, which tend to be private and start at around $US 20,000 a year. Fees are payable upfront, but you are able to get loans. But here is the crunch: you aren’t guaranteed a loan. You must apply to an institution offering one, the largest being Sallie Mae. Yes you’ve heard names like this before.  Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are similar institutions to Sallie Mae and were culprits in the housing bust. Sallie Mae offers loans to students for their education. But only if you are creditworthy that is… And of course, lenders are far more discerning these days in who they will lend to so there are higher hurdles to clear for student loans following the GFC. If lenders say you’re not creditworthy, then there is no college for you… The costs are almost too prohibitive to be able to pay yourself upfront.

College has just started in the US. Many students are lucky to have got loans but others haven’t, or their parents are under extreme financial distress trying to pay upfront. National Public Radio did an interesting piece on this following several students through their first year of college, and there are many similar stories are told elsewhere… I am really happy to have Australia’s education system at times like these. It must be said the cost is we have Australia’s tax system for this to occur (taxes are lower in the US) but I think our’s is the enviable system…

Over the last half a year, I’ve realised just how boring life is when there are no challenges. I mean, I do hate challenges mostly, because they frustrate me and I usually fail, but lately I feel like I’ve just needed to use my brain. It is just going to die if I don’t use it.

Haha, I make myself sound like a zombie or something.

For those who don’t know, I was studying at Monash University in Churchill – doing a Bachelor of Science. It sounds hard, doesn’t it? Well, it’s even harder then it sounds, especially when you have a billion mental illness’s. So after a few months, just before mid-year exams, I had to leave. It was too overwhelming. I got a doctors certificate from Doctor Fisher saying I couldn’t attend Uni for a year.

But then again, Doctor Fisher is extreme with everything. If I tell him I need a medication prescribed (apart from sleeping tablets and valium, due to my attempted suicide on those drugs that he prescribed), he’ll let me have them. I could easily work up to another overdose with his help. Anyway, that’s not what this blog was about.

As I was saying, my brain needed challenge. So the other day, when I needed to take my form to the University so they wouldn’t charge me the HECS fees for this year, I also asked for the course books for semester two Biology and Environmental Science. So now my brain is satisified, and I can take some pressure off myself by studying and getting ahead of work for next year, so I won’t be so stressed.

I have also asked if I can start back in March, instead of August in 2010. I really hope they approve it – sitting at home all day, or working all day is becoming a bore.

A quick note to begin with – there have been further developments in the ‘Youthy’ saga this week with Deputy PM Julia Gillard meeting with a student body who say they are adversely affected by the changes. There has been particular concern in regard to the consequences the changes may pose to potential students in rural and regional locations. Both the opposition and minor parties consider this move by Gillard to be stage one of an eventual back-down from the original proposal – 2011 ‘Freshman’ (to coin an American phrase unpopular in this country) can only hope so…

What I find hardest to believe in the midst of all this political tennis is that the people who attended university during the ‘golden years’ of taxpayer-funded tertiary education are the ones attempting to initiate these changes (Yes, you Julia). With the national HECS debt tipped to top a staggering $13 billion in the near future, financial stability during the course of a higher education degree should be mandatory.

A popular misconception about the Youth Allowance system is that it is freely possible to earn an acceptable living on top of raking in deserved welfare cheques. Once a student on such payments has worked 8 hours in a week (approximately $115 on average casual rates), 30c from every further dollar earned is subtracted from their student income. Even more alarming is the encouragement students get to commit to additional working hours; where a further 30c (15 hours) and 45c (20 hours) are taken respectively. Earning money in order to lose money does not eventuate to be any smarter than it sounds. A prevalent (and not often entirely legal)  method to avoid this situation is to track down that lucrative ‘cash in hand’ job; no questions asked!

Chasing that elusive student dollar…

The cat’s meowing. For no reason. Still.

There is good news on the university front. This morning I got an email from the lovely Justine, my enrolment officer who has been helping me to suss out all the shit to do with eCAF and fees and the terrifying amount of money that ANU is demanding I give them within six days. For those out of the loop, shortly after I posted on Sunday, I checked my uni email and discovered that ANU wanted me to give them over five thousand dollars, as it was apparent to them that this semester I wasn’t covered by Commonwealth Assistance. Cue meltdown + panicked phone call to the Parental Monetary Fund (with whom I am already thousands of dollars overdrawn). It was good timing by the floozy, who appeared just as I was hitting a bit of hand-wringing futility, bearing ice cream, pretzels, and a level head. Fortunately, she trawled the labyrinth of the ANU student site and wrote down a whole heap of people I could talk to about this, to figure out (a) whether I actually had to pay the money and (b) who could give me short term loans and the like. Meanwhile, I recovered from brain implosion long enough to realise I should ask one of my coursemates what she was doing about it – she told me I should just have to speak to the enrolments officer and they would be able to transfer all the eCAF stuff over.

I ended up emailing both my convener and my enrolments officer that afternoon, but obviously on a Sunday there wasn’t much that could be done about it until Monday. (Plus no one at university ever gets back to you straight away. They all let your email loll about in their inbox collecting cyber-dust, then they play eighteen games of solitaire, go out for a smoke, create peace in the Middle East, and then reply to your email.) In any case, the day had been killed – most unfortunate considering it was the day that I was planning on making headway into the Art History presentation for Wednesday. This kind of thing usually throws me too much to be terribly productive afterwards (just like when I discovered Captain Responsible and his girlfriend were back together, or when things I really don’t like pop up on facebook to taunt me and the only recourse is going out on to the back landing and smashing beer bottles onto the concrete below…or something.)  but fortunately the prospect of making a ridiculous fool of myself in front of the Arth kids was motivation enough to pull it together and get a fair bit of work done.

It was a stupid week this week. Only this morning has all the eCAF shit been resolved, and I was fucked around by the HR people at the NAA over our induction seminar days - they were supposed to be this Wednesday and Thursday, so I cancelled on the bakery. I have been messing them around in a big way, with the all the timetable changes, and other NAA related stuff. I was stress-central until Wednesday, when I got the Arth stuff out of the way. You can bet uni didn’t help there, either. I finished the presentation on Wednesday morning, with a few hours to spare, wandered leisurely into uni, in order to print out my notes. Do you think though that I could find somewhere to print? Of course not. I went to Hancock first, and there were plenty available on the second floor, but the printer was rooted, and wouldn’t print. So, then I went to Chifley (wishful thinking) and of course there was not a computer to be found. Decided to try the labs over in Copland and HA, but the labs wouldn’t let me in – decided they hate my student card. By this time I was getting to be only around thirty minutes before my class, even though I thought I had a heap of time. Fortunately, the Art Library saved the day again, where I managed to find a computer AND a printer. (The new printing system at ANU is painful, too. I don’t think they actually print Duplex, which makes printing out readings less than cool.) The Art Library is starting to be the only saving grace of ANU.

By the way, does anyone know how they let you know when a book you’ve asked to be recalled comes in? I would have assumed by email, but I recalled the book days ago and haven’t heard anything…

I got to class, and then had another panic moment, as I saw that the topic for the week’s lecture was ceramics. I had written my presentation on Yangshao and Longshan pottery – which is Neolithic Chinese pottery. I hadn’t even looked in the course guide to see what the lecture would be on. Now, this seems fine, right, because they’re about the same topic? Wrong. This is bad. My Arth lecturer is notorious for being really against anyone doing their class presentation on material that is expressly covered in the lecture. Obviously there is supposed to be some overlap, but she generally gets you to choose topics that the material can’t be found all in the lecture for. I hadn’t okayed my topic with her, I had just kinda gone with it and hoped. So when I get into the lecture theatre and she pulls up a slideshow about Chinese ceramics, I’m pretty much having a panic attack that all of my material is about to be covered and I’m going to be repeating her in my presentation later that day.

I calmed down pretty quickly when I realised there was absolutely nothing I could do about it, and in the end the lecture barely grazed the topic I had chosen – it was all stuff about much later ceramics and porcelain and all this stuff from 600 CE onwards, whereas my topic was from about 5000 – 2000 BCE. But I’d already gotten to the point where I basically needed alcohol. The presentation in the end went quite well, thankfully. I have a very good group in  the Art History grad group, and it was all pretty chilled.

Then, I got to have a whole, glorious, amazing day with no study and no work. Yesterday was amazing. I slept in, went to the gallery (They are doing a changeover at the NGA, how exciting! I love changeover. Lots of new things. And since it’s not finished yet, there will be MORE new things if I go back next week! Exciting times.) and then I came home and painted for about six hours (I may or may not have had the first season of Stargate on in the background…) and then I went and crawled into bed. I’m now out of canvasses, which makes me a bit sad. It means the big square’s existence is in jeopardy. I kind of don’t like what’s on it that much, I really want to paint it over, but G likes it.

Anyway. I should go and find something to wear to work.

As most of my friends prepare to head back to Uni, it’s kind of a strange feeling to know that I won’t be joining them. It’s a relief to have the pressures of University off my back and to not have to think about it anymore. Though, I must admit that my time spent at uni flew by much faster than I anticipated.

I know that for many people as well, this week will be the first time they start University. I can barely remember my first year and it seems decades ago that I was a fresh faced and nervous 17 year old wandering around the large campus. If the size of the campus isn’t enough to scare you, the overwhelming buildings and unfamiliar faces should do the trick. I knew no one and no one knew me, so it made the first day of Uni that much more terrifying. I wondered how I would adapt and how I would fit in with somewhere that seemed so different to what I was used to. From being the oldest bunch in High School to now being the youngest, it was quite a shock.

You’ll soon realise that the people in your lectures and your classes are not all your age, do not come from the same circumstances as you and High School has been left behind completely. I’ll have to admit that my first year of Uni wasn’t the easiest. I felt sad for the most part, not particularly wanting to let go of my high school ways. But looking back now and having finished uni, I know it didn’t need to be that way.

So the best thing I can do now, is to offer advice to those of you starting out fresh and are going through mixed emotions, not knowing what to expect. There’s not denying that the experiences you all go through will be different but I’m sure they will be great experiences if you let them be.

First things first; be prepared for a completely new experience. We’ve all transitioned from Primary School to High School and now you’re going from High School to University. It’s the same concept in a sense but you’re starting out fresh here. Embrace the change and enjoy it.

Secondly, I’d suggest making as many friends as possible. I know it can be a little hard at first when you’re shy and basically overwhelmed by everything but the chances are that more than half the people in your class are feeling the same way. I’ve never had problems making friends before but Uni seemed different for me. I remember coming home and complaining to my sister about how I had no friends yet and how that made things seem worse than they were. She suggested that the next day I go into Uni, I sit down next to someone I didn’t know and just introduce myself. From there, class became a little less tedious, I began to feel more comfortable with my surroundings and it wasn’t so bad anymore. If it’s not as easy as that for you, I’d suggest joining as many University groups of associations that you can. It will help you to meet people who are interested in the same things as you and open up a door for new friends.

In the end, there isn’t too much advice I can offer because I’m sure you’ll all find a way to make it great for yourselves. The important thing to remember though is that University is meant to be the fun part before you have to really grow up and forge a career for yourself. Have fun while you’re there, it’s not often that you can feel this independent whilst still so young. On a side note, make contributions to your Uni Hecs fees to get potential discounts on what you have to pay in the future, don’t forget to reach out and ask for help when you need it because it’ll be worse when you have to spend more time than you need to on something and once again, remember to have fun. Best of luck!

In response to the 20-20 summit(s) of last year, Commissar Rudd has proposed a new scheme to help students building a HECS debt to reduce it, through volunteer work and alike. Here is the NEWS.com.au article plagiarised:-

KEVIN Rudd wants to recruit an army of young volunteers to help the elderly, feed the homeless, and clean up the environment.

In exchange for giving up their time, members of the new Community Corps would get discounts on their university HECS debts. The proposal could attract tens of thousands of volunteers from the 1.3 million Australians with a higher education debt.

The average ex-student has a $12,000 HECS debt, which typically takes more than seven years to pay off.

The scheme could wipe out students’ debts as they accumulate hours of community service, the Herald Sun reports.

The plan, backed by top business minds and embraced by community and welfare groups, emerged from the Prime Minister’s 2020 summit.

The Government is expected to adopt it within days when it releases its final 2020 summit report.

Mr Rudd, who has pleaded for Australians to pull together to beat the rapidly worsening economic downturn, has described the idea as “a very practical trade”.

Corps members could deliver meals on wheels, youth and Aboriginal services, become volunteer firefighters, or assist the disabled and elderly. Landcare and water projects could also benefit.

It is understood the Corps would operate within Australia, unlike the US Peace Corps, which works on projects across the globe.

The plan is believed to be one of about six big ideas from the 2020 summit to get the green light.

After the summit, Mr Rudd said: “We need more volunteering in the community, and students are emerging from university with a whole lot of debt.

“The idea . . . where young people would go out and provide voluntary service in the community in exchange for reducing their HECS debt . . . is one we want to consider.”

Brotherhood of St Lawrence chief executive Tony Nicholson said there would be plenty for Community Corps members to do.

“It could range from assisting with recreational programs to driving a community bus, to assisting disadvantaged people get to the doctor or do their shopping,” he said.

Mr Nicholson said those with special skills, such as IT graduates, would be particularly useful.

When the idea was floated at the summit, the architect of the Higher Education Contribution Scheme, Prof Bruce Chapman, said it would appeal to wealthier students. Poorer students, he said, would probably prefer to enter the paid workforce.

tl;dr? Basically, if you volunteer and become part of this Civil Service Army, your HECS will be reduced (although a per hour rate hasn’t been mentioned). Anyways. Posting it here because I’m interested to see your views on:-

1. Whether it’s a good idea
2. Whether you’d like to see your YA’ing be taken into account (whilst not giving back to the community in a forementioned way, there is still a valuable contribution to society being given). And if so, how would you work out how much you should be refunded.

If you’re not a uni student/you have no HECS debt, post up your thoughts anyways. It’s fun.

In the times of high strangeness that we live in, most money exists only as electronic data entries. However these data entries are neccessary for most of us to get by. It seems to me that the power elites believe that the government can stimulate the economy by taking bad debts from the banks. I think it would make more sense to forgive all unpaid HECS debt. The approximate cost would be au$14 billion. To pay for this, increase the tax on income to 90% on any thing over 20 times the average income of the Australian taxpayer.  Make the rich pay. 

We need to increase the “disposable” income of the younger generation because this is the age when they are buying the necessities and setting up households and having children. We definitely need the Gen Y folks to have a more charitable view of the boomers so they don’t make Soylent Green our future.

The Irish Universities Association (IUA) recently lobbied Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe for the introduction of an Australian-style student loan system – also known as the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) – saying that such a move would help shift the burden of college fees from the parent and the state to the student.

But NUS president McFarland has told the Irish Echo that such a plan would lead to the same problems currently being experienced here, where average loan repayments have reached a staggering $50,000 per student.

The IUA has decided to oppose the return of the old Irish fees regime, abolished in 1995, instead favouring a system where Exchequer support for colleges would be topped up by student fees. The cost of these fees would be lent to students and then repaid once the students have started working.

McFarland, however, is certain that such a plan would eventually lead to a situation, as in Australia, where the level of student debt has dissuaded young people to take up third level education.

Independent reports in Australia have also indicated that the large debts have led to other related social problems such as tax evasion and reduced home ownership rates.

 “I’m very aware of the Irish plan, I’ve had calls from The Irish Times and the BBC and the Union of Students of Ireland (USI) about it for the past few weeks, and I’ve told them all the same thing. Our advice to the USI is to resist this,” McFarland told the Irish Echo. “We’ve had the HECS system in Australia now for 20 years and it’s led to two main problems. Firstly, the level of student debt has increased exponentially in that time period. It was originally sold as a ‘modest contribution’ that would cost about $500 per student, but that has since spiralled to where the average student loan repayment is now up around $50,000.

“Secondly, the debt level has led to decreased participation in third level education from the more socio-economically disadvantaged sectors. It has also affected participation from rural and regional areas.

“The overall participation figures look good, but they mask the fact that they are nearly all made up by the upper and middle classes. The HECS system has really disproportionately affected poorer people.

“Basically, the biggest problem is that the potential debt people face is putting them off going to uni. At the moment students are bearing the brunt of costs whereas they were only supposed to be making ‘contributions’.

 “You would see the same thing happening over time in Ireland through different administrations and governments. Universities would seek to have fees increased and these costs would see student loans increasing. That’s what’s happened over 20 years in Australia.”

Australia is now bottom of the OECD rankings for public investment in education, while, on the flip side, Ireland is currently top of that same OECD ranking, proportionately investing more public money in education than any other country in the world.

 Simply put, that is the main reason why the Irish Government and university heads are seeking to introduce a scheme whereby students bear some of that financial burden once they have finished their education and are in full-time employment.

 The USI, through its president Shane Kelly, has already announced that it will stringently oppose the IUA’s proposed plans.

All over Australia university students are struggling to cope. They are either forced to compromise their studies to hold down a job to earn earn enough to live or remain homeless, couch hopping and skipping meals.

Jay Thompson from Online Opinion reports in ‘Postgraduate study and paying the bills’ that it isn’t just undergraduate students suffering from lack of funds. Our countries Master and Doctorate students are also in dire need of support. It seems that the general assumption among the public is that students are assisted by scholarships, bursaries, HECS and Centrelink. This is far from the truth.

As Thompson says, scholarships for post-grad students are becoming harder and harder to come by. Even for students lucky enough to be awarded a scholarship, it is almost impossible to to get by without some kind of supplementary work as the average post graduate scholarship is barely enough to cover the ever increasing costs of living. The added pressure of holding down a job is detrimental to students study.

As for Centrelink, unless you have earned roughly $18,000 in an 18 month period, you are not considered ‘independent’ until you are 25. As most uni students are between 18 and 24, they are ineligible for most Centrelink payments. For the wealthy, this is no problem. They can rely on Mum and Dad. For the rest, they can live in poverty and devote their time solely to their degrees or they can get a job which can effect their ability to complete assignments and study. Furthermore, once they graduate they are faced with thousands of dollars of HECS fees.

This is a major problem facing the future of Australia as today’s uni students are the leaders, business owners, doctors, journalists, academics and scientists of tomorrow. Without sufficient funding for students the education level of our nation will suffer, leading to decreased skilled services and university graduates in the labour force. As Thompson suggests, there are numerous solutions, the most cost effective being Universities providing low cost housing for students, relieving the pressure of somehow affording to pay rent. Whatever the solution, the problem is immense for both undergraduate and post-graduate students and needs addressing.

This week has been the hardest, longest, most painful week I can remember having.
It has come at the midway point of a year which has been one disaster after another, from unexpected HECS debts, to unexpected house demolishing, to granmother having a leg amputated, dream jobs becoming nightmares, and a few minor things which have simply been forgotten about once it burns itself into your mind that your home is being demolished.

This week I was sick. Tonsilitis, fever of 40.1, which I am told is high, ear infection and headaches and dehydration and strange sleepless nights of fever and hallucinations.
My wife has a friend who had a still born baby, named it the same as my youngest daughter, and they were all suitably messed up and understandably miserable.

Tempers were running high in both senses, which led to me kicking the car windshield, from the inside, and not hard, which led to a broken window.

My wife was, hell, probably is, angry at me for not being supportive during this time, and I was honestly trying my best, under the circumstances, to keep it all together.

I was sick, very sick.

I feel like a total piece of shit, and her family and my family probably think I am a total piece of shit, and that I was over exaggerating the illness, they don’t know what it’s like to lay on a hospital bed for two weeks, unable to swallow, like I do.

That was just under 10 years ago now, and every time my tonsils swell up that high and fast I panic.

So maybe my headspace was a bit messed up, and maybe I wasn’t as supportive as I could have been.

I still don’t know why I feel like such a piece of shit though.

But I do.

Feel like one I mean, not know why.

Fuck it.

Australia is a good place to live. Really, it is, I love living here.

I am not patriotic in any sense of the term, my country is not the greatest on the planet, and I have a generally unpopular “the more the merrier” approach to immigration.

Most of the immigrants wont steal any job I might be able to get, or have any interest in having.

After the latest budget, well, I don’t know…whatever.

I try and pay attention, I am glad that couples who earn $150,000 combined can no longer get the $4000 baby bonus, they don’t need it and if they do so desperately need it they should have reconsidered having a child.

We have tried to do the math and we seem to be about $35.00 better off per week, which is a plus.

However, I also have a $1600.00 tax debt for HECS because I earned $800.00 too much for the financial year.

So, easy come and easy go.

What I need in a budget, Misters Rudd and Swann, is some kind of payment to assist people become teachers. That is the job I want, and with another 18 months of study I can be a teacher, and I will be a good one, really, I will.

I will teach our youngsters all about immigration, and what makes a country a great place to live, and maybe how to make the world a slightly better place.

But it means I cannot earn money, so unless someone wants to offer me a job working from home, that doesn’t involve cold calls and so on.

In fact, just offer me a job to write fulltime…I can work for as little as…oh…lets say $80.00.

But, you know, feel free to offer more.

As a recently graduated university student with only a single debt comprising of an outstanding HECS loan my view of interest rate rises is in stark contrast to the majority of the population. Indexed against inflation, the growth rate of a HECS debt is curbed by the latest inflation-targeting decisions of the RBA.

Simultaneously a standard bank account now earns a greater rate of return allowing me to benefit by delaying repayments as long as legally possible. The only requirement is a sufficiently lengthy delay to overcome the bonus provided for paying lump sum HECS repayments.

Happy new year arkatekts, hope you’ve caught up on some sleep in the time from the last post.

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of news in the world of Melbourne architecture, yet. Perhaps when everyone has had a few more weeks back at work it will start to pick up a bit. Not that everyone doesn’t seem to be pretty damn busy again already. Or looking for a job, there seems to be a bit of that happening at the moment.

In the next month or so we’ll see the new architecture program at Monash swing into action though. According to the newspaper supplement, they admitted 75 students, with approximately half of those coming from high school. Very interested to see how things work out for the study of architecture at Monash; from what I’ve heard it will be a damn good course (but they lose points for the absolutely bloody awful music on their webpage, oh god I’m in cafe del mar hell). The renderings of the building reno by WSH look good.

RMIT’s admission figures seemed to be down to me at 51, but that was HECS places and let’s face it, architecture is a cash cow for universities, they get in as many full fee paying students as they can because they provide the cash. Desperately needed cash because government funded places are so under-funded, no university could possibly run with HECS students alone.

And Melbourne, well, it is impossible to tell what is going on there, what the hell is a Bachelor of Environments anyway? I’m not necessarily against the Melbourne Model (or the Bologna Model, which is basically what it is), hell, I can think of a lot of advantages to being able to change your mind about architecture and simply be able to change your major, rather than going into a whole new degree, I can think of a lot of people who would have benefited from that.

Something that has happened over the holidays that I think deserves a mention is that the old Melbourne power station demolition has begun. I may be the only person in Melbourne who is actually sad about this, I actually like that building in all it’s greyness. It may not be “pretty” but it was I think a really interesting part of the history of the city in both functional and aesthetic terms. Now no one would consider generating electricity so close to where it is actually used (I’m sorry but a few wind turbines on roof-tops don’t count), it seems that the only functions allowed in any new building in the city are offices, apartments and shops, as though life consists entirely of work, sleep and shopping. And I like it’s concrete grunginess! Sick of slick panels everywhere that just make real buildings look like bad renderings.

Oh well, I suppose it’s only heritage if it’s pretty isn’t it?

According to this forum, Peddle Thorpe are the architects of the proposed scheme, the developers are Soldis Capital.

There are some great photos here.

There has been some good economic news or I should say false economic news!

Theses green shots of recover happens to be weeds instead within the next 12 months I must say!

There’s one of my favorite economist who thinks so as he is still pessimistic on global financial recovery. Its Dr Marc Faber, the editor of the Doom Boom and Doom report.

Recently on Lateline business interview with Ali More. He is still pessimistic about the global economy as he don’t believe throwing money into the economy is going to make it better, but in fact.

It makes matters worse because the debt is still there, toxic assets still sprawling and companies who are unprofitable are still there.

He later on have a go at Ben Bernanke the Fed chairman and is up beat of the Australian economy as he gives the thumbs up to Aussie workers.

Here’s the interview:http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/business/items/200908/s2667994.htm

Moving on to other topics:

Channel ten’s owner CanWest is still in debt, in my opinion there is a likely hood of Channel Ten going to be either sold off or bankrupt. Lets hope Kevin won’t bail them out, because they are too big to bail. I hope he repeat the mistake of the Howard government like they did with Mitsubishi motors which resulted in closing the South Australian plant.

Cheers everyone.

I hope you enjoyed watching that program “4 corners” on the ABC, I did and I was such a sham that the education system let those poor Indian students down.

In regards to the link between education and permanent residency in Australia, in other words overseas students come here to Australia to study just to gain permanent residency. This problem emerge in 2005, when the federal government tries to address the skill shortage problem, one of this is by allowing for overseas students once finished their universities degrees can apply for permanent residency depending on how they QUALIFY!.

They have to show they complete the English language test and sufficient work experiences. Some students are despite to gain permanent residency by cheating with the help of migration agents.

This is a moral hazard, which the federal government that they have created for making it easier for overseas students to study in Australia which they really desire to gain permanent residency in this country, which opens the door to dodgy education providers that prey on vulnerable students.

These days of this moral hazard has to end as both the Australian Federal Police and the immigration department is cracking down on dodgy migration agents and dodgy education providers.

For better or worse, the massive $ 15 billion education bubble will blow up at some time, at least that’s a good thing for the education industry to restructure itself without government intervention.